By Leah Katz
January 29th, 2020
“Dear Evan Hansen, today is going to be a good day and here’s why.” Those first words cut through the chorus of buzzing phones, news reels, and notification sound effects as the light from the computer screen illuminates the main character’s face in the first few seconds of Dear Evan Hansen. Soon, the audience is plunged into a world of lies, social isolation, and grief.
Sounds like a great show, right? With the experience of seeing it three times, I can assure you that it is, in fact, an incredible masterpiece of theatre. The modern, pop/rock soundtrack brings a new lens to musical theatre, completely contradicting the traditional group dance numbers and operatic soloists belting out one note for five minutes. This has attracted an entire new generation of musical theatre fans to be frequent audience members and participate in their local productions. The show is currently playing to audiences worldwide, with Broadway, National Tour, and London productions.
The plot of the Tony-Award-Winning musical follows a high-school senior dealing with the recent suicide of a classmate, which eventually spirals out of control into a domino effect of bad decisions and outright lies for our title character.
The show’s cast and creatives have been very active with mental health and suicide prevention. Dear Evan Hansen is currently partnered with a total of 8 organizations in both the U.S. and London dedicated to suicide prevention, including The Trevor Project, Child Mind Institute, and Lady Gaga’s Born This Way Foundation. The show’s extensive partnerships encourage fans and viewers to donate to the organizations and become advocates in their own communities. This greater purpose takes the show off the stage and into the larger picture of community and inclusivity.
An overwhelming theme of this show is community. The title character goes from an outsider of the community, to creating a fake community, and finally to being accepted in the community. The on-stage images of social media, emails, texting, and video chats immerse the viewer into the world of social connection, and opposingly, social isolation. The role of cell phones and social media inspired fans to bring it to life in the real world and create their own fan community.
With over 446K posts, the “Dear Evan Hansen” hashtag is always active, fueled by a range of 100,000-250,000 fan accounts run by musical lovers worldwide. This incredible fan base is most popular on Instagram, but fans can be found in any corner of the internet. Self-named “fansens” share art, covers of favorite songs, video and photo edits of favorite cast members, and friendly discussions, all in the spirit of sharing the love for this musical.
The show’s message rings true: you are not alone. It has even “found” many students right here at Beverly High School, with our chorus singing its two hit songs, “Waving Through a Window” in 2017, and “You Will Be Found” in 2019.
For anyone interested in learning more about Dear Evan Hansen, the Original Broadway Cast Recording is available for streaming or purchase on any music platform, and the novel adaptation can be found in the Beverly Public Library.
Additional information about the show and its partnerships can be found at dearevanhansen.com.
